All of Doctor Who, one episode at a time!

Episode 827 – “The Pilot”

At long last, it’s back! No, not the blog. I’ve actually had quite a few posts lately, thank you! Not one a day, but still! Sort of. Anyhow, no, the show itself is back, and spoilers ahoy!

I look way too much like Nardole.

This story introduces Bill, the Doctor’s new companion. She’s got a crush on another woman who works at the school the other woman attends. All things look good for the two as a couple, but soon there’s some weird alien stuff going on involving sentient oil slicks, Daleks, Movellans (!), and, of course, the Doctor and Nardole.

The story acts as something of a reboot to the series, giving us actual classroom lectures on the concept of a Time and Relative Dimension in Space machine, as well as a few other items. I rather like that. It doesn’t leave too much time for the story, but the story is rather simple anyhow, and that’s perfectly fine; we don’t always need some huge epic saga overscored by Murray Gold.

I must say the Movellans were an interesting inclusion. We don’t see more than a few seconds of them, but I rather liked seeing what we saw. I especially liked that they didn’t feel the need to update them to a more “modern” feel. Yes, the space-age disco bodysuits and dreads remain intact.

Overall I quite liked this story. It wasn’t perfect, but there was a minimum of annoying things, and it had a nice flow to it. Bill is a charming new addition to the cast, and though he was used a bit more sparingly than in the Christmas special, Nardole still worked out well. Plus there were some nice nods to the past, with the aforementioned Movellans and a brief pair of references to Susan.

If this is any indicator of how series 10 as a whole will go, I’m quite looking forward to it!